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Thought I'd better get a new thread going on my next 'What If' PRU pink Spitfire project. This is where the discussion is already headed on the current Ready for Inspection PRU blue Spitfire decoy thread. The basis for this particular 'What If' is another 1/32 scale Revell Spitfire IX. Not getting ahead of myself, the presumption of the 2 PRU Blue Spitfire decoy projects I've completed so far was based on the 'What If' scenario on this thread. However, with the PRU pink project its clear - based on feedback here - that a few IXs were indeed for real running around with standard armament in a low level PRU role. So I just need to do more research to understand if this was just a standard IX with cameras fitted and no other mods, i.e in a FR designation. If so, I guess I can drill some round holes and install smoked glass into the Revell kit. That kind of mod is within my existing capabilities. On the other hand, if mods would reward extensive carving and sanding skills, it's probably not for me at this stage, and I'd happily go back to looking at a fantasy 'What If' project. EDIT: TITLE CHANGE. THIS PROJECT WILL NO LONGER BE A 'WHAT IF' PROJECT. IT IS A 16 SQUADRON RAF SPITFIRE IX FR, JULY 1944, BAYEAUX, FRANCE

Hello all, I am intending to build the Revell 04478-0389 1/32 kit of the venerable Sud-Aviation SE 3130 Alouette II, but on floats, in civillian livery and markings. The aircraft chosen will be Zulu Kilo Hotel November Whisky (KZ-HNW) registered to Helicopters NZ (HNZ) and has an all-orange airframe with white cabin roof and yellow tail skid. The floats appear in the photo that I have to be white or a very light grey, with dark grey strips. Kit box via Scalemates: The photo of the aircaft can be seen here (via the HelicoptersNZ in the 1970s page from 'Top Birds & Everyfing' on Typepad): Photo copyright Top Birds & Everyfing on Typepad This photo also suggests the basis for a very simple but highly-contrasting diorama. The kit has a relatively large number of parts, (at least compared with the as-yet uncompleted and possibly ill-fated Accursèd Seafire 1/72 kit by Pavla that nearly drove me around the twist in very short order: I have a house brick on standby for that one), even without the bits for the Nord 5210 SS-11 missile system. This kit has been impinging on me off and on for some time now, and this Group Build is the perfect opportunity to do something with it . I have very clear memories from when I were quite small of seeing pictures of Alouette-like helicopters with floats on buzzing about, so I went looking on ye internet, and sure enough, quite a few turned up. The one that leapt out at me was the very attractive (well, to me at any rate) orange, white and yellow HNZ machine. I have read through the instructions (I keep all the kit instructions separate from the kits in my collection - coz I'm weird) and will trundle down to the lockup and attempt to retrieve the kit from the slightly-ordered mound of removalist's boxes that the stored part of my collection lives in, in the next day or so. The floats will be made from fine-celled blue Styrofoam building insulation, which I acquired a few sheets of a while ago for making parts for my flying radio-controlled scale models (last used for cowling scoops for my 1:5 Chippie cowling plug). I still have a lot left. If all goes according to plan I might even be able to float it in the bathtub. So, that's the plan. I also have a Plan B, which involves the Airfix 1/72 Crab Sea King HAR3 helicopter - which needs no introduction to anyone. Another brightly-coloured aircraft, all-yellow this time of course. I'll post again with some snaps once I've dug out the kit. Cheers, Alex. <-- likes the look of the nice grass in that photo above. Being in New Zealand, a sheep probably wouldn't be out of place on the mooted diorama...

Hawker Hunter XE 552. This is the 1/32 scale Revell FGA 9, finished as XE 552 "M" of 54 Squadron at RAF West Raynham sometime between 1966 and 1969 when the squadron received Phantoms. I chose that aircraft because I wanted an aircraft in grey/green uppers and silver under and the history of 54 Squadron is interesting. Founded in 1915 in Castle Bromwich it now is part of 1 Group, based at RAF Waddington providing OCU services for the Poseidon and Reaper aircraft used for Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance (ISTAR) The kit was purchased in 1999 when I was “between jobs” and has been waiting in the wings since then. I dug it out earlier this year, you can read the build story here….. I had wanted to fit Matra 155 pods but after an exchange with other members it seems probable that such pods would not have been fitted until after a repaint when the aluminium was replaced by Light Aircraft Grey and the uppers painted in very shiny polyurethane paint with a wrap round on the leading edge. There are photos of a 54 Squadron Hunter taken in 1968 with rocket pods and LAG undersides. In the absence of photographic evidence the outer wing pylons are empty. From this thread I was able to discover the full story of XE552's life. Thanks to all... This is the thread.... XE552 was first delivered to 5MU, Kemble, as an F6, on 26/3/1956, and subsequently issued to 65 Sqn at Duxford, where it was coded "U". It later went to 263 Sqn, then back to Hawker Siddeley Aviation in 1960 for conversion to FGA9. Converted, it went to 208 Sqn as "D" 31/10/61 - 23/2/64, then to 19MU at St Athan (storage or what?) before going back to 208 Sqn briefly, before from mid 1965 to late 1966 serving with 8/43 Tactical Wing at Khormaksar in Aden before being issued to 54 Sqn as "M" in late 1966 or early 1967. Later it went to 1TWU (234 Sqn) at Brawdy, then finally as R to 2TWU / 79 Squadron at Lossiemouth, until it crashed, these are the details... Date: 23-FEB-1981 Time: afternoon Owner/operator: 2 TWU (79 Squadron) Registration: XE552 MSN: 41H/679926 Fatalities: Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1 Other fatalities: 0 Aircraft damage: Written off (damaged beyond repair) Location: 20 miles NE of RAF stn Lossiemouth, Grampian, Scotland - United Kingdom Departure airport: RAF Lossiemouth (LMO/EGQS) Some photos for your enjoyment: I'm pleased with this model, the kit is generally considered to be reasonably accurate and captures the look of the Hunter. I'm lucky, I can get close up to XF375 at Old Sarum Airport whenever I want and close inspection shows a few small errors by Revell. Hunters sit low, this is close to a ground eye view.... . Close up to the nose.... Yes, I know the blast tubes are equivocal, they were used to prevent a nose up trim change when firing the cannons, but ofter removed after gunnery exercises. And the back end.... And from a cherry picker basket, looking down....

Hi all, Hope you're enjoying the bank holiday and incongruous good weather! Thanks to the days off and good conditions I was able to finish this beast of a conversion which had been sitting almost finished for about a month. This is the Revell 1/32 GR.1 kit (well, a mix of two or three Revell IDS/GR.1/ECR kits all donating various parts!) The F3 conversion was done using the Heritage conversion set plus a lot of scratchbuilding, extra details and plenty of filler and swearing! The build thread is here: The subject is ZE763/DG, one of two 11 Sqn F3s converted to EF3 status and capable of carrying ALARM anti-radiation missiles with chaff and decoy dispensers on the outer pylons. The fit was trialled for possible use as a SEAD platform for Op Telic, but although the aircraft was well-suited for the mission the mud-moving community threw a fit and the concept was shelved. The biggest headache with the build was finding decals - none of my kits had any, the Heritage set decals were good quality but limited, while the available aftermarket Tornado stencil decals didn't have the required pink stencils carried by the aircraft at the time. Basically everything but the white stencils came from donor kits and spares, with Xtradecal lettering and numbers from various sets. The Phimat pod was from the Revell/Italeri Mirage, the drop tanks and BOZ decoy launcher were modified from the Revell kit, the ALARMs were from Flightpath and the ASRAAMs were the excellent new releases by Eduard Brassin. The BOL rails were included in the Heritage set and looked very nice. The pilot figures were by PJ Productions, although they needed modifying to give them a bit of individual character! I intended to mount this in a dynamic pose and the job was made much easier by using a 5mm carbon fibre rod rather than the equivalent 14mm acrylic the weight of the kit would have needed. I would thoroughly recommend the carbon fibre mount, being stronger than plastic but easier to work than metal. Anyway - see the build thread for top tips on building an F3 conversion from the Heritage, or any similar set. It's not a straightforward cut'n'shut but a very satisfying result. Very difficult to photograph due to the size and the pose, but here's one in natural light. I reckon with a photoshopped background this would look pretty cool! Couple of extra shots from earlier in the build: How the conversion set was put together: An attempt at photoshop background, woeful effort but I'm no expert! I've built a lot of 1/32 jets in the 15 years since I took up modelling again, and I'm really proud of this one, It's the pinnacle of what I can produce at the moment and came out exactly as I'd hoped. All the best, Alan

First of all, hope everyone is doing well and keeping safe 🤝👍 Got a bit of time on my hands so plucked up the mojo and started this extremely red plastic devil !! Everything bar the transparents ( obviously) is molded in red plastic so until you wash it and prime it, I for one, found it difficult to imagine it looking even remotely realistic. Forgot in my haste to take pictures of the cockpit assembled prior to paint. This is where I'm at now... Not perfect but a lot better after I ditched the seatbelt decals and made my own from scratch using tinfoil sandwiched between some masking tape. The next picture shows the decals which have gone into the spares box and should never be used for their intended purpose !! A final shot showing the completed cockpit and canopy interior. Next step, the fuselage and some thought as to what will be painted prior to assembling. The red plastic... suggests everything 😉 Keep safe and keep modelling 🤝

Hi Britmodellers! Kicking off this thing as a practice build before going all superdetailed on the RAF one. Building mostly from the box with the addition of Paragon seats and flap/slats. Using the kit Tigermeet decals, which must be among the most ambitious sets of decals ever put out by a model manufacturer! Here's the cockpit as supplied by Revell, it's great stuff! Considering what you pay for Tamiya's kits, the pit is every bit as good as their F-4J Phantom. Front office Backseater's office Front instrument panel And the back Neil's MB 10 seat (jawdroppingly good casting!) And the lot dry-fitted The cockpit was painted in Gunze Mr Color Light/Dark Ghost Grey and washed with oil paint. Detail painting on the panels was HU 33 Matt Black and Xtracrylic Neutral Grey and Insignia White dabbed by cocktail stick. The seats were painted Vallejo Air Barley Grey and Dark Sea Grey, backs Tamiya acrylic Olive Drab, belts Tamiya acrylic Dark Yellow and Khaki. Metallics were my old fave Gunze Mr Metal Color Aluminium, Brass and Chrome Silver. The dark nonslip floors were approximated with a small square of 1200 grit paper from Halfords stuck on with white glue. Used Merv's pictures for reference (cheers for posting them, invaluable stuff!) and others off the net. I've also got the old Aeroguide book on the GR.1 (all black and white pics, but good for surface details. Cheers, Al

Hi again, Quarantine Queen #2 is finished! Rescued from the Shelf of Doom after a two-year wait, here's Revell's wonderful 1/32 Hunter without any extras other than seatbelts made from Tamiya tape. Painted with Xtracrylix Dark Green and Dark Sea Grey with the underside in AK Extreme Metal Steel. The original application of AK metaliser is the reason this build was originally abandoned - when I masked it to apply the camouflage, the adhesive from the tape merged with the paint to create a sticky horrible mess that wouldn't come off. When I resurrected it a couple of weeks ago, I managed to remove it using cellulose thinners and cotton buds without damaging the underlying plastic. After that, I was able to finish it. All the decals were from the kit (including the many, many stencils) and a Revell first for me - they reacted very well to MicroSet/Sol and didn't silver. This was by miles the best Revell big scale jet I've made, and I've tried most of them. Amazing value at just £14.99 in a sale. It went together beautifully, very nice surface details, and really captures the sleek shape of this iconic British fighter. The second build I've finished since the flu began, should think there's a couple more before normal life returns... Thanks for looking in, Alan

A much talked about blue or not blue mustang, i happen to think it was us navy blue ,with painted over upper dday stripes in either raf green or od, maybe both,this is how I'll be depicting lou iv ,its the recent revell 32nd scale kit i picked up cheap from hobby craft black friday sale, it'll be wheels up with a pilot on board which I'm yet to buy, and on some sort of stand

I'm trying to find out more about the window in the "Car Door" on early Hawker Typhoons. Some authors suggest that this could be raised and lowered, like a car window. Despite much searching I cannot find either a photo of a window "half open" or even any authoritative confirmation that it was movable. Does anyone here know?

Here is my "Red Arrows`" Hawk in 1/32 scale. Built with Revell 04284 kit, Eduard`s interior PE parts, Master`s Pitot tube and some "scratch" work (mainly flaps). I thought it will be easy and relaxing work, but it wasn`t. I don`t expect miracles from 1/32 kit which costs about 20 GBP, but Revell`s Hawk has some annoying errors and too many simplifications as for 1/32, not so old (2010) model kit. First of all it`s designed to show in flight position (it has movable ailerons and rudder with retracted flaps, while on ground flaps should be extended with ailerons and rudder in neutral position!). Something`s wrong with elevator position either. There are not any rivets, also a lack of plates under elevator`s mounting positions is visible. Details in cockpit are not so bad, but seat belts from decals are not very good idea - that`s why I used Eduard`s PE sets. The worst thing in this kit is... red plastic!!! It`s really hard to work with it and the moldings are not very good quality because of it! I think that later edition (04849) with grey plasic would be a better option if you would like to build a Revell`s 1/32 Hawk. Main colors are painted with Xtracolor enamels (oh, what a long drying time!), covered with Microscale Gloss and polished with Tamiya polishing compound. Decals in the kit are of good quality, but the white elements are little transparent, so I`ve overpainted them with white acrylic. Summarizing - it takes a little work and patience to make a good 1/32 Hawk from Revell`s kit, but once you`ll finish it - it looks great on the shelf! At least from the distance...

Hi, Who makes the best replacement Bang Seat for Revells 1/32 FGA.9 Hunter. Cheers plasto

Completed for the Phantom STGB right here on Britmodeller. Revell F-4F kit with Eduard exterior set, loads of scratchbuilt modifications, painted scheme and homemade decals. Photos courtesy of Farnborough IPMS website, taken by our very own Kallisti. (Thanks Andrew!) Lots more pics and build thread HERE Cheers, Al

Hi folks, Happy New Year. My first out of the hangar for 2015, OOB except for a scratch built oil cooler intake and spray painted roundels, fin flashes, sqn codes and serial nos. using the kit decals as templates for home made vinyl masks: Regards J A

Can anyone recommend any aftermarket bits and bobs , looking to gussy it up a bit in the cockpit area

Hi all, Revells 32nd Typhoon with Xtradecal & Aires Engines added. "The Third Shall Be First" Brian.

Started this yesterday and I have to say I'm actually disappointed with the kit. It's very thick brittle plastic with very large attachements to the sprue: extreme care needed when taking bits of. The cockpit & engines are very simple and plain, the undercarrige looks just awful and I've decided immediatly on an in-flight display. The stand is nice and the overall lines of this space fighter are fantastic: I just need to do a good paint job to redeem some of the other features. Top & bottom: Engines: I'll probable add some of my own piping Cockpit: I've added to scaps of plastic to the side walls where decals go just to give them some dimension The pilot fiure is also quite nice. There are plenty of decals which should make it look better but it's going to really depend on the paint job to look decent

To begin the new year in the right way there's nothing better than a good model. The new Revell He 162 32nd scale is really a very nice kit. It comes together almost without putty and there is a lot of fun adding some details to the engine in such an unusual position. Only the pilot seat, one of the first ejectable, could be a bit more accurate, but can't complain. The model is built OOB with some scratchbuilt details for the cockpit and the engine. Painting as been done with airbrush using as always Tamiya acrylics. Hope you like it. Comments and suggestions are always welcome. Happy new year! Andy